The Pursuit of Happiness: Alison's Transformation Story, Part One
In 2019, Alison Hartrum had everything she thought she’d wanted.
Between her corporate job and rental properties, she was making between $200k and $250k per year. She wasn’t yet thirty years old, but she was already in an excellent place in her career; her income was substantial (even considering the $555,000 in mortgages she was paying off), and being single and childless, her responsibilities other than work and property ownership were few.
Always having been a decisive person who acted quickly once she reached a conclusion, she could now buy almost anything she wanted as soon as it caught her eye. She could go out and rent a private pool for her birthday. She could take her entire team to an elegant lunch at an upscale fine-dining restaurant anytime (on her business discretionary account, which alone amounted to more than many people earn in a year).
But she was unhappy. Oh, it looked like she was totally okay, thriving even, right where she wanted to be. But she was spiraling. Behind the scenes, there were aspects of her life that were getting out of control. The unrelenting stress of her job and the world that went along with it, the choices she was making in her efforts to alleviate that stress, the feeling of being unfulfilled in what she was doing — it was getting to her. She was trapped in by her work, unable to get away to travel as she’d always wanted, unable to be her own person, unable to breathe.
She had spent the last two years dreaming of getting out and leaving it all behind.
By the time she turned 30 in August of 2019, she was in line for a promotion that promised an enormous increase in her already impressive salary. She was just ticking the boxes; she’d be there within a year. She’d worked so hard to get where she was. It was what she’d always envisioned success to be, right?
But there were toxic aspects of her work environment now and she was still unhappy for all of the same reasons that had plagued her for the last two years. She was hurting; she still wanted, needed, to escape the gold-plated handcuffs with which her profitable career had captured her.
And so, in September of 2019, having made the decision to leave, and in keeping with her usual swift approach when she resolved to do something, she walked away.
It was terrifying. It was exhilarating. She now only had the income from one rental property and no prospects for work, but her expenses were much the same (remember those mortgages?) and yet she was still relieved. A month later, at the end of October, she had packed herself and her two dogs into her car and was heading to Mexico. That desire to travel that had always been a part of her had become her driving force.
Alison started to feel like herself, her true self, for the first time in a long time. She was able to look inward, to understand her own needs. She could breathe again.
But the bills were still coming, and they were catching up quickly. She didn't dwell on that, though. She was working on herself, and she believed everything would work out. She knew she would be okay. Until one day, in the Airbnb at which she was staying in Puerto Vallarta, a bill came in and she realized that she was going to have to overdraw her account in order to pay it. Alison thought, "Okay, well, this is the end." But then, that very night, she got an Airbnb booking for one of her properties back in Philadelphia.
Alison had decided to become an Airbnb host not long after traveling to Mexico. A friend had helped her prepare the property for guests, but there had only ever been one rental there before that night in Puerto Vallarta. This new one-month Airbnb booking came in at exactly the right time to help her stay solvent — and it turned into eleven months of that guest renting the space.
The money she made on that rental would have been a pittance to her before; now it meant everything. She had come to appreciate what she had so much more than in the previous years.
Later that week while at the beach, relaxing in her lounge chair with her book and drink, her beach bag beside her with some snacks, peacefully taking in the gorgeous sand and ocean and appreciating her new, beautiful life that was so far from the crushing grind that she'd been caught in for so long, Alison received a text from a friend. The friend was requesting business coaching.
She said no.
The friend repeated her request, and Alison, afraid of returning to where she'd been before, reliving the stress and the demands of that unhappy previous life, continued to answer in the negative. But the woman was persistent, and eventually Alison agreed.
She decided that she would do this, for just this one friend, and that she would take a casual approach. For the price of $150 per month, she and her friend would have two to three calls during the month, and Alison would provide personalized homework based on those conversations. There would be an overview of what they'd discussed and a list of action steps to be taken.
And so it went. From December 2019 until March 2021, during which time she returned to the US, traveled to Jamaica, went back to Mexico, explored Guatemala and El Salvador, and visited Honduras and Nicaragua, Alison stayed afloat through Airbnb rentals, side jobs, and the coaching work she was doing for her friend. She experienced the loss of a family member, as well as the restrictions and frustrations of COVID, but continued to find her way in this miraculous second life that she'd come to love.
In the spring of 2021, the friend whom she had been coaching unexpectedly referred her to other business owners who were seeking the same kind of help. Alison had three separate conversations with three different women regarding the possibility of furnishing them with the business coaching services she'd been providing for her friend. It was not something she had anticipated, and she was wary of it, but Alison couldn't pass up the opportunity to earn more income and feel more financially secure. She also felt more confident, now having experience and materials, working notes from the coaching she'd already done.
Though she didn't know it at the time, this was the beginning of Abambyh Business Coaching.
Now Alison had four women to whom she was providing business coaching. With this income, she felt she needed to legitimize her efforts, to be more formal and professional. In April it became official: Abambyh Business Coaching was a named enterprise.
So...why "Abambyh"?
Join us next time for a little history on the name!
To be continued...
Written by: Tina Harmuth
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